Select Skills to Practice

Finding resources is a three-stage process—this page is for the first stage:

1. Selecting skills to practice
2. Choosing assignments
3. Reviewing assignments

1. In the sentence in the upper part of the page, select the subject area and class/group or year you are selecting resources for.

   

   When you select class/group or year options , a pop-up window will open where you can make your choices:

   

   • School network administrators, school network staff and other personnel assigned to more than one school will need to select schools in the Schools column .

     • Choose Select Schools at the top and then tick individual schools to select them or select All Schools to select all the available schools at once.
     • School administrators, school staff and other personnel assigned to only one school will not need to select a school.

   • The default option is to make resources available to classes and groups. If you would rather make resources available for all students in a year, select the CLICK HERE link . This changes the second column from Classes and Groups to Years:

     
     Select the link again to switch back to Classes and Groups.

     • If you are selecting resources for classes and groups, tick the classes and groups you want to make the resources available to in the Classes and Groups column .
       
       
       • You can select more than one class or group.
       • Teachers will only see their own classes and groups.
       • Groups in classes that are not using Planner Trial will not be shown in the list.
       • Selecting multiple classes/groups will make Star suggested skills and the Manage Groups function (see tip box below) unavailable.
     • If you are selecting resources for all students in a year, choose the year you want to make the resources available for in the Years column .
       
       
       • You can only select one year.
       • Teachers will only be making the resources available to their own students who are in the chosen year.

   Once you have made your choices, select Apply at the bottom of the pop-up window to save them or Cancel to close the pop-up window without saving your changes.

   Need to create or edit student groups? Select Manage Groups in the upper-right corner of the page. You will go to the Manage Groups page in either the Reading Dashboard or the Maths Dashboard, depending on what subject you chose .

   If you have selected multiple classes/groups or years (see above), the Manage Groups function will not be available.

2. After making your selections, you will see the placement level . Based on Star assessment data and Renaissance Learning's student growth models, the placement level is an estimated answer to the question: "If the students in the class/group or year that I have selected were to take a Star assessment today, what would their median Scaled Score be?"

   

   This estimation allows you to use Star's science (Star's proven validity and reliability) to have a very good sense of your students' achievement level as of today. The placement level is calculated using some of the students' recent tests and typical growth rates (for more information, select the on the right ).

3. The number in the slider is the selected point in your learning strategy. Select the arrows to either side of it (or click on the learning strategy line itself) to raise or lower its value. As you do this, the following information will change:

   The skills corresponding to the selected point .

   

   The entire range of Scaled Scores that the selected point falls midway between .

   

   The years associated with the skills .

   

   Note: If you have chosen to make the resources available to all students in a year, the year will be set to the year you selected.

   The range of Scaled Scores for the five skills currently shown .

   

   The rectangles below the skills show the part of the learning strategy that the skills belong to.

   

4. Tick the learning objectives (skills) that you want to use. In the example below, the teacher has chosen the second, third and fourth skill cards shown.

   

   • Suggested skills have a "Suggested" indicator at the bottom . (If you chose multiple classes/groups or years to make the resources available to, these indicators will not be shown.)
   • Focus skills are marked ; these are the skills that are most critical for success at each year level.

5. Once selected, the skills are listed below the skill cards . You can remove a skill by selecting the on the right .

6. To see more information about a skill, such as the standard, select the at the bottom of the card . You will see the skill information in a new window, with the skill details shown by default. Select one of the categories on the left to see domains and standards, subskills and prerequisite skills. (Some skills may not have subskills or prerequisites.)

   

   Select Close to close the information window.

7. If you want to find specific skills to work with, select the search icon above the skill cards .

   

   Then, search for and select skills you want to include.

   1. In the pop-up window, enter a keyword to search for and select the domain you want to search within from the drop-down list . Then select the on the right side of the keywords field .

      

   2. Below the keywords field, you will see how many skills match your keywords . Those skills are flagged ; on the skill cards, the same flag appears in the upper-right corner .

      

      Use the slider arrows to move from one skill to the next. To include a skill, tick it.

8. When you have finished choosing the skills to teach, select Continue .